


Fresh Eyes and Football Cleats

by demxntia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, I Don't Even Know, I can't tag for the life of me, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, Motorcyle x Keef, Pidge | Katie Holt is Savage, Pining Keith (Voltron), Possible Threesome, Sassy Pidge | Katie Holt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-10-22 09:23:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17660072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demxntia/pseuds/demxntia
Summary: Okay, I'm just posting this so I don't lose the draft. This story is subject to change.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I'm just posting this so I don't lose the draft. This story is subject to change.

She hated how so many girls in her school swooned over the football team.

Sure, even Katie had to admit that they were pretty freaking hot, but they were also the most stereotypical people she’d met to date. They flirted their ways through life, skipped classes, bullied geeks and nerds, forced anyone with any slight amount of intelligence to do their assignments. It was pitiful really, how closely they’d fit the bill of your run of the mill high school football players.

But there was always one boy on the team that caught her attention.

Keith Kogane.

He seemed like the bad boy type; motorcycles, leather jackets, the whole nine. And she was annoyingly weak to the guy. But he never seemed to notice her, like she was just a puzzle piece amidst a million others and he always went for the others first.

Even when she filled the one missing space perfectly.

Or so she thought.

After the beginning of the second semester of their sophomore year, she’d slowly come to notice how, in the classes they had together, his eyes would scan over the room and would catch hers for the slightest moment. How his entire visage brightened, even minutely, but enough for her to notice. Whenever she had a presentation or assisted the teacher in teaching the class- the poor guy barely even seemed to know what the class was about, much less how to teach the subject- Keith seemed a bit more enthralled, asked more questions.

It was intriguing, to say the least. A jock being even slightly interested in a geek, the geekiest of them all? If you asked her to list the amount of stories held that plot line, she could list more than five hundred and ninety eight off the top of her head. But intriguing nonetheless.

But still, she refused to swoon over him. He was definitely swoon-worthy, but she wasn’t one of those girls. The ones who would throw themselves at a guy the second they had the chance. Plus, she wasn’t interested in being a side-chick.

It was well known to the entire school that Keith Kogane and Allura Leon were dating. They were the school power couple, the jock and the cheerleader, and everybody knew it. So every girl or gay guy avoided him like the plague. Anyone in their right mind would want to avoid Allura’s rage. He was still popular though, and every time she saw him in a crowd, she couldn’t help but notice how he didn’t even seem to want the popularity.

But back to the moment at hand.

She sighed softly as she went back to her seat and collected her things, ready to walk right out of the class and head to her locker, or drop to the ground and sleep. She was exhausted. Mostly because she was tutoring more than half of the football team and they wore her out with their dirty jokes, innuendos, and taunts, but also because she’d stayed up all night grading her half of the papers from her American literature class. Damn, at this point she should’ve been getting paid, but no such luck.

“See ya tomorrow, Mr. Amendes,” She said softly as she began walking to the door, but as soon as she stepped foot outside of the class, she ran into someone.  “Shit, sorry about that,” She perked up at the voice, and looked up, smiling. “Oh, hey Lance. We’re still on for the video game contest tonight?” Lance seemed to snap out of his stupor and looked down, a smile of his own on his face, “Yeah, definitely. Think you can wait for me to get out of conditioning?”

Oh. Right. She’d forgotten for a moment that her childhood best friend was also a member of the football team.

“Sure. Now, can you help me get up?” Lance chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck- a nervous tick of his- with a bashful smile, and nodded, extending his hand to her. She took it and grunted softly as he hefted her back onto her feet. But instead of letting go, he continued to hold it, and she sighed. “You can let go now, ya’ know?” “I know, but I don’t want to.”

And now he was acting spoiled.

She gently tugged on her hand, signalling to him to let go, but instead of doing so, he just tightened his grip. It wasn’t all that tight, more gentle than anything, but she wasn’t too sure she liked the amount of PDA he was exuding. So yet again, she gently tugged on her hand.

She expected him not to let go. She really did. But she didn’t expect what came next; Lance always found a way to surprise her.

He suddenly swept her feet from beneath her and caught her, one arm behind the back of her knees and the other around the small of her back. He hefted her into his hold and she squealed, getting the attention of everyone in the hallway. “L-Lance, put! Me! Down!” Pidge gently banged her fists against his chest, hating all of the attention on the both of them, and Lance eventually got the message, setting her down with a gentle kiss to her forehead.

“Sorry, Pidgey,” He said, sounding truly sorry, and she just sighed. “It’s fine. Jeez, you’re acting like you ‘accidentally’ stole Ocarina of Time from my room.”

Lance gasped, aghast, and she chuckled darkly. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about that, Lance.” He clutched at his chest with a pained look, feigning as though she struck him, “I can’t believe you, Pidgey! You thought I took it on purpose? You wound me!” As always, he was overdramatic, and she laughed, taking joy in seeing him so happy. Lance looked a tad bit confused as to why she was laughing, but instead of questioning her, after a moment, he joined in. They laughed for more than three minutes, the bell just barely registering in their minds as they did so, and eventually they sobered.

“Why were we laughing?”

She shook her head with a light giggle, she still couldn’t ease the small amount of giddiness that had bubbled in her chest, and sighed. “Uh, let’s get to class.” The warning bell was due in less than a minute, and when Lance noticed that she was suddenly grateful for the fact that he was so strong.

He knelt onto the ground and gestured for her to hop on, which she did, and he stood quickly before taking off running. After years and years of her hitching a ride on Lance’s back, he’d grown used to it, almost expected it, and the adrenaline rush from being so high while moving so fast always took her breath away. And as soon as they reached their classes, taking up their seats in the back, the bell rung.

Poor Mr. Samson looked so done with teaching, and she sighed. Another day of unpaid labor awaited her.

* * *

 

 

“........Now, I’m passing out our essays from last weeks assignment, and I have to say, there has been quite a lot of improvement in some of your writing.” She smiled at Lance as she said this, passing him his paper, and the shocked look on his face was suddenly worth all of the hours she’d spent with him helping him with his writing. But that smile fell as she turned back to the rest of the class.

“But I must also say that, while this may not be an AP class, I’m sure both Mr. Samson and I expect much better. While some grades were exceptional, others were cumbersome, to say the least. I want you all to pass this class as much as you do, maybe even more in some cases, but just because of that doesn’t mean I’m going to just give you a good grade without you actually working for it.”

As she spoke, looking over the class with a soft frown, she took notice of two violet eyes staring at her with rapt attention, and she had to fight the warmth that threatened to rise in her cheeks. She shuffled through the papers until she found Keith’s and walked over to his desk.

While it hadn’t been the best essay she’d read, she could practically read the amount of effort he put into it, and she appreciated that. She’d sworn that she wouldn’t show favoritism- normally, she didn’t- but she couldn’t help but lift his grade, just a little bit. So instead a big fat 75 on the top corner of the paper, an 86 sat in its place.

She set it down on his desk and smiled. “Much better,” she whispered, and instead of the usual frown on his face, a small smile nearly left her scrambling for something else to say. “Meet with me during transition; we can work on some revisions and I’ll regrade it, okay?”

“Okay.”

A grin made its way onto her face throughout the rest of the period, even while the least enthusiastic members of the football team groaned and complained about her being unfair. And, hey, they were the ones that gave her the most trouble during tutoring. She was definitely going to return the favor until they got their act together.

So yeah, maybe she was being a little unfair.

* * *

 

She almost immediately ran into Keith after the bell. Maybe it was because he was waiting for her- Mr. Samson needed more help grading assignments, _ugh_ \- or maybe it was just chance, but she doubted chance highly. And she liked the idea that he had been waiting for her. She was a girl in love, remember? It’s the small things that matter. Just like the small smile that was on his face.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” She breathed, awe making her voice breathy, and he smirked. “So, you’re a student teacher?” She scoffed and shook her head, mumbling under her breath, “I wish. Student teachers get paid.” He raised an eyebrow but didn’t question it any further; instead he pulled out his paper and handed it back to her with a little grin. “So, where’d I go wrong?”

She smiled and looked back over it, and writing down her ideas for him to redo on the paper. “There’s some stuff you need to work on, sure, but your essay overall is fantastic. All you need is a little refinement, there are some better words that you could’ve used here and there and some grammatical errors, but if you worked on that and polished it a bit more I could probably give you a solid 90.”

She already knew nearly every student’s grades in the class, and she had to admit: Keith sorely needed that 90. He tried, it was as clear as day, but there were more NTIs than completed assignments. Maybe she’d offer her tutoring services to help out a bit more.

“I guess I could try. I can’t promise it’ll be any better, but it’s worth a shot,” he said, and her heart soared. She really didn’t want to be the one who failed Keith, she really didn’t. And she smiled up at him, “All I need is the effort. If you try, you can definitely do better. But I’m not gonna be one of those cliche teachers and say that you can do so much better than this. If you wanted to, I bet you could, but you’ve got your priorities. Even if I think they’re a little misplaced, they’re still your priorities and I can’t judge you for them.”

Pidge nudged his shoulder none too gently, already knowing it wouldn’t knock him back, and said, “But, I know you’re smart Keith. I’ve seen what you can do when you dedicate yourself to something. If football’s what you want to dedicate yourself to, then I can’t judge. But I also have to say,” She braced herself and said, “I can tutor you. Help you get your time management a bit more organized. If some extra time in the library helps bring up your grades, I wouldn’t mind helping.”

By the end of her impromptu speech, her cheeks were so hot that she was sure she resembled a tomato, but she willed herself to look at him and all of the air in her lungs collectively gathered their things, said their goodbyes and moved out of her lungs.

The look on his face practically made her heart melt, all of the stress from the day just melting away, and she stared in awe. A soft smile split his lips, the usual wrinkle between his brows gone, and the look in his eyes. Oh god, the look in his eyes made her feel like if she wasn’t careful she’d turn into a puddle on the floor. “Thanks, Pid-” “Keith! Didn’t you promise to walk Allura to her next class? She’s waiting for you.”

One of the football players- no matter how often she saw them and heard their names, Lance and Keith were the only ones that stuck in her mind- came up and grabbed Keith by the elbow, and she mourned the loss of the smile on his face. “Right,” Keith muttered, and he looked back at her, smiling tightly, “Thanks, Katie. I’ll see you tomorrow in the library?” “Y-Yeah, tota-totally.”


	2. late to the party

He was late.

On his first day of tutoring, Keith was late. Usually, Katie didn’t care about whether they came on time or not. She just cared if they came. But this was different, this was _Keith,_ and she couldn’t help the small amount of betrayal that she felt.

Her happy mood went sour, and she groaned when the librarian came over to her and told her that the library was closing. Sadly, there were no other people the woman could tell, seeing as she was the only one who stayed. She knew there was no after school conditioning, no activities that he could have gone to- knowledge she only had because of her close relationship with Lance.

Oh hell, Lance.

“Shit,” She growled, and grabbed all of her things before heading out, hoping to get to Lance’s house before sundown. Lance’s little brother Nico only turned ten once, and if she didn’t get there soon, she was going to miss the celebration. So she rushed out of the school library and to the bike racks, and skidded to a stop.

It was gone. Her bike was gone. Her hands flew up to her hair and she ran her fingers through it, frustration making her clench her teeth. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” She yelled it as loud as she could without drawing too much attention from the lingering people, and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Okay, okay, you just need to find another way to Lance’s house. Maybe call Marco, he should- nope, he’s definitely already there. Rachel could pick- ugh, she had to pick up the cake! Fuck!” She paced frantically, groaning and growling, and she kicked the closest thing to her.

She didn’t expect her foot to connect with the very thing that made her lose her bike -and her mind- in the first place.

“Ouch. You’d probably be a good striker for the soccer team if you tried.” All of her frayed nerves soothed at the sound of his voice, and she melted for a moment. A moment.

“Where were you?” He quirked an eyebrow and his head tilted to the side, which would’ve made her coo in any normal situation, but this definitely didn’t count as one. Katie barely held back a scowl and looked up at him, glaring, “I waited two hours for you. If you didn’t want this help, you could’ve just said no.”

He flinched slightly and she felt guilty, but, most of all, she felt angry. Sure, at this point, she was used to being used, to being taken advantage of, but it hurt. She could’ve been hanging out with her best friend and his little brother, helping them celebrate a birthday, but instead she’d wasted two hours trying to help Keith, only for him to barely show.

“What do you mean?”

“‘What do I mean?’ What do I _mean_? What I mean, Keith, is that if you honestly wanted help you would’ve tried to get here on time! You would’ve tried to get here before the library freaking closed! If you came on time, I wouldn’t have to try to find out a way to get to my friends’ house! I wouldn’t have to worry about trying to get home! Because- if you haven’t noticed- the buses have stopped running! I’m fucking stranded here and you were out doing God knows what when you could’ve been working to get up your grades!”

The words sat on the edge of her lips, but she bit her tongue and shook her head, muttering, “Never mind.” God, this wasn’t good. If she liked him so much, she wouldn’t feel the need to bite her tongue. She’d be honest, and transparent, but instead she forced herself to stay quiet. She should’ve punched him in the face and walked away, but she didn’t, couldn’t.

Anyways, one look into Keith’s eyes made all of her anger dissolve, melt into her body, and all of the tension fell through. He had that sort of affect on her. So Katie just sighed and looked at him, asking hopefully, “Could you maybe give me a ride?”

Keith still looked confused as hell, and that sorta pissed her off, but then he smiled, however minutely, and nodded. “Sure, where to?”

Okay, so maybe she was unable to get angry with him and stay that way.

She sighed in relief and fixed the strap of her bag, the weight of her computer dragging the strap into her shoulder, “Lance’s house. You know where it is right?” “Yeah, but why Lance’s place? He’s gonna get pissed.”

She chuckled and shook her head, laughing. “I forgot about your whole rivalry thing.” 

Keith and Lance hated each other with a burning passion, the two having held a hatred for the other ever since the beginning of middle school. But, despite their rivalry, they were great teammates, which had helped lead their school football team to regionals eight times. In fact, they both seemed to have mellowed out, and, while they still fought, they were friends. Not close friends, but friends.

And Katie sighed. "It's Nico's birthday, and I need to give him his present today. Plus, Signora McClain makes some great buñuelos and she only makes them on birthdays. I can't miss them." Keith huffed a laugh and nodded softly, his bangs falling into his eyes, and they began walking to where he'd parked. "I hope you're okay with riding a bike," He mumbled, and she furrowed her brow, looking up at him in confusion, "Of course I'm okay with riding a bike. I ride one to school everyday." 

"It's not that kind of bike."

Her jaw dropped when she saw what he was talking about, and she backed away from the motorcycle in terror. "No, no, no, hell no. There's no way in hell I am getting on that."

* * *

"I can't believe you made me get on this thing."

Keith chuckled and looked over his shoulder, smiling at her. "And how do you suppose we get there in time? You'll be fine if you hold on tight to me."

"That's what I'm worried about," she mumbled. She tightened her arms around his waist as tightly as she was comfortable with, and she barely held back a blissed sigh. She could feel his muscles, his warmth, through his shirt and her cheeks warmed deeply. "You ready?" She hummed shakily, and Keith chuckled. She could feel his chest rise and fall with his laughter, and her heart warmed in her chest.  

So, maybe, she wouldn't mind another ride on his motorcycle if it meant she got to get so close to him.

"You might wanna hold on tighter." She lifted her head and looked up at him, quirking a brow, "Why?" He smirked, looked at her over his shoulder, and winked. "You'll see." The engine revved and she squeaked, clinging to him as tightly as she could. She whimpered fearfully as they left the parking lot, but, over the sound of the engine, she could hear his heartbeat, slow and steady.

So Katie smiled and pressed her ear against his back, ignoring the wind biting at her face. 

She totally wouldn't mind another ride.

(She didn't notice the small smile that took up residence on Keith's face.)

* * *

As soon as she stepped off of the torture device, her legs gave out.

Katie yelped in distress as she fell and Keith laughed -genuinely laughed- before hopping off himself and helping her up. It probably didn't help that she started pouting, but she couldn't be bothered to care when he began laughing harder. 

"Katie, you okay?" "You know, it would be easier to believe that you're actually concerned if you weren't laughing at me."

He clamped his mouth shut at that, his face turning a bit pink, and she chuckled, watching Keith's face contort into a pout. "Who's laughing at who?" "Still kinda you. I wasn't laughing as hard as you were." It was bizarre, seeing Keith pout, but also cute? Was that the word for it? And she decided; yes, yes it was. Especially when his cheeks brightened, a deeper shade of red that Katie couldn't help but find adorable.

"Hey, Pidge, you...." 

Katie froze, her face falling, and she slowly turned to face the house. Only to see Lance standing in the doorway, staring at the both of them in confusion. "Keith? What are you doing, ya' know, here?" "Uh, I agreed to drop Katie off here. I kinda owe her." Lance just stared for a moment, probably trying to find out why Keith would owe her, but she didn't want him to weigh on it too heavily. Especially since, just as her legs stopped shaking like slapped jello, Keith climbed back onto his bike.

"Oh... You're leaving?" It was pointless in trying to keep her disappointment out of her voice, and, when Keith gave her a rueful smirk, something that made butterflies take root in her stomach, Katie realized something important; she was one of the least subtle people in existence. 

"Sorry, but I wasn't invited, and I don't really like party crashing. So I'm gonna go. See ya' at the library tomorrow?" "Uh, sure! Maybe I should let you wait for, like, three hours. See how you like it." Keith chuckled softly, a gentle breath of air that made her dizzy, and said something that could have thrown the world off its axis. 

"You know what? It'll be worth the wait."


End file.
